


Resurrection

by ptw30



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Found Family, Gen, Group Hugs, Set during Season 7 but slight AU, Shiro will always be the Black Paladin, Team Bonding, That's just how it is in my house, we are always stronger together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 02:23:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16358870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ptw30/pseuds/ptw30
Summary: On the journey to Earth, the team struggles to form Voltron. Lance knows the answer. (Minor AU)





	Resurrection

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this prior to Season 7 for a whump prompt and totally forgot about it until I stumbled across it in my email.

The gray-white hair took some getting used to, and maybe Shiro wasn’t a fan of the “space grandad” jokes. But he couldn’t hide his indulgence. He ruffled Lance’s hair, swung an arm about Keith’s shoulders, and listened to Pidge’s navigation. He assisted Hunk in preparing the team meals and strategized with Allura over their next move. With Coran, he worked to regain his strength. 

Eventually, Shiro battled Keith to a near stand-still, managed to set up camp and make breakfast by himself, and taught Keith’s wolf how to fetch. 

When it came to battles, though, Keith was always the first to stay, “You’re still recovering, Shiro. You should stay here and rest. We’ll be back soon.”

Allura squeezed his shoulder, offered him an apologetic smile, but didn’t object. Lance gave a teasing salute coupled with a shaky smile, and Pidge waved. Hunk stopped on his way to Yellow and sighed. 

“It was hard, y’know. When we thought we lost you. Lance still hasn’t recovered. He thought he couldn’t help you, and Keith – ” He glanced at Red instead of Black. “Give it time. They’ll come around.”

Shiro tried to hold back his disappointment as the lions took off. While he couldn’t deny it was comforting, heart-warming, even, to be loved, he was their leader once. They listened to him, trusted him. He was on the frontlines, ready to fight for the universe and those he loved. For more than a year, he had to watch from afar, but now he couldn’t even do that.

The paladins returned exhausted but elated, and Shiro smiled. A pat on the back, a ruffle of hair. He’d join them again, hopefully, but for now, he would celebrate their victories. 

Until one fight they returned battered and defeated, staggering from their lions’ ramps. 

“We couldn’t form Voltron,” Lance spouted. “Why couldn’t we form Voltron?”

Keith looked like he held himself personally responsible, and Hunk sniffled. Pidge appeared dazed, leaning against him, while Allura clasped her hands before her. 

Coran circled the team, offering drink pouches. “Now, now. Don’t be too hard on yourselves. You still managed to save the planet and defeat the robeast.”

“But we’re going to need Voltron eventually,” Keith growled and squeezed his pouch until it burst. “We haven’t tried since the battle with Lotor. Maybe…leaving the rift did something to – to the lions?”

“To us?” Lance offered. 

“But we are still bonded to our lions,” Allura said between sips. “Perhaps our own bond weakened after the fight with Lotor?”

“It should be stronger now, shouldn’t it?” Hunk asked. “We went into the rift. We defeated Zarkon and Lotor. Why aren’t we stronger?” 

Shiro thought back to the feeling of being in the Black Lion. Even though the others didn’t know he was there, he lived for the moments when the lions came together. The brief connection allowed him to experience the paladins’ emotions, to feel them as he had when he was alive. Excitement. Fear. Anger. Determination. 

 _Love_. 

Every time they formed Voltron, Shiro was with them. He lived again. 

It also allowed him to feel the intense loss the others felt when he was missing. Perhaps Keith was the only one who didn’t give up on him, but the others’ grief reached him. When each came to the conclusion they wouldn’t find him, that he was dead, overwhelming agony swept through him and the lions – and it usually happened after the team formed Voltron.

Maybe they just needed to start all over again. 

“Coran, do we still have the mind melding headbands?”

“Oh, come on! We’re not kids anymore, Shiro,” Lance complained. “This is bigger than just – ”

“It’s been a struggle to form Voltron before, Lance,” Shiro said, calm but firm. “First, we struggled on Arus, and then you five struggled on Thayserix. Each time, you were able to come together. You can do it again. You just have to find what you lost and reforge the bond.”

They sat around in their new places – Keith in Black’s position, flanked by Lance and Pidge, then Allura and Hunk. They strapped on their headbands, and one by one, images formed before their faces. Keith’s shack remained his main focus, but now his mother, father, and cosmic wolf joined the picture. On either side of the family stood the paladins with a white-haired Shiro closest to him, an arm flung about Keith’s neck. 

Lance’s family photo remained unchanged as well, though the paladins and Coran joined their ranks, somehow fitting seamlessly into the group. 

The Kerberos Mission photo flashed in front of Pidge’s face, the rocket behind her and Matt, but Matt was now dressed as a rebel. Sam and Colleen stood behind them, Sam now dressed in Olkari wear with a beard, while the paladins were arranged about them in a semi-circle.

Hunk’s picture included all the paladins’ favorite meals, including Shiro’s favorite dish – macaroni and cheese from the garrison’s cafeteria. 

Allura’s picture wasn’t a revelation but a confirmation for Shiro. On one side of Allura stood the current paladins and on the other stood the original - including Zarkon, who looked upon Allura with all the love and affection of a favorite uncle.  

The team’s photos shifted to be their lions, but as they started toward one another, they couldn’t line up. 

“Guys, focus,” Keith ordered, but Allura sighed. “It’s not working.”

“We’re still missing that Voltron feeling,” Hunk agreed. 

Pidge opened her eyes. “We’re definitely missing something.” 

Shiro sorted through the different pictures in his mind, trying to figure out where the team lost focus. All of their pictures included the paladins. The team managed to come together as a unit, a family. Together, they created Voltron’s soul. And yet – somehow, they were still incomplete. 

“It’s you,” Lance said in awe, drawing Shiro’s attention. Shiro almost flinched at the intense stare. “ _You’re_ the missing link.”

“Me?”

Lance didn’t wait for a reply, instead shouting for the team to make room for Shiro in the circle. He snatched a headband from Coran, snagged Shiro’s wrist, and dragged him over to the space created, right between Keith and Pidge. After situating the headband upon Shiro’s head, Lance retreated to his designated space. 

“All right.  _Now_ we can form Voltron.”

Shiro still wasn’t sure what to do. What did Lance mean that he was the missing piece? He was right there. 

At Keith’s assurance, Shiro closed his eyes and focused on what meant most to him. It was no longer the Kerberos Mission, though that would always hold a special place in his heart. Instead, he thought of Black and Red, of Green, Yellow, and Blue. He thought of the bridge of the castle-ship and he thought of the people on it. 

Yes, the bridge – with Allura, Keith, Pidge, Lance, Hunk, and Coran. Shiro wasn’t sure when that had become his home, but it had. And with Black, he’d found the family he’d been missing most of his life. 

Between him and Keith, Black formed. Between Keith and Lance, Red formed. Between Lance and Allura, Blue formed, and like he remembered from his time in the Black’s consciousness, Shiro’s soul synced with the others. He lived again, and together, they formed Voltron. 

When they finished, Shiro brought down his headband and stared at it. “Lance, I – I don’t understand.”

“You were in Black, all that time,” Lance said, gazing down at the Red Bayard in his hands. “We never formed Voltron without you. We  _can’t_.” He looked up, eyes shimmering in the low light of the campfire. “We’re always stronger together.”

Shiro held the gaze for a long as he could before finding himself the object of six competing smiles. Coran winked, while Pidge muttered, “Welcome back to active duty.”

“We have missed you,” Allura said. 

He had always been right here, even if they hadn’t been able to see him most of the time.

“No, not yet.” Hunk pinned Shiro with an intense glower. Hunk, who told Shiro to be patient. “Not again. You can’t leave again.”

Shiro clenched his remaining hand. “I didn’t want to leave the first time – or the second. Or any – ”

“No, Hunk’s right.” Lance put up a shaky finger for each point. “You were hurt by Sendak, on the castle-ship, then you went onto a battlecruiser before you were ejected by Black. Blasted by a space witch. Mauled by giant lizards. Attacked in the Astral Plane and hunted by Zarkon himself. Knocked unconscious in your own lion, then killed. Oh, and then almost starved to death before being compromised by said space witched, kidnapped  _again_ , maimed by Keith – ”

Keith perked up. “Wait. What! Me?”

“ – and almost killed yet again.” Lance swiped his hands in front of him. “Never again, okay? We can’t see you die or hurt  _again_.”

“You forgot Sven,” Pidge added. 

“Oh, yeah. We saw you die in another dimension, too!”

Shiro didn’t remember that, for which he was grateful. Taking a deep breath, Shiro tried to calm his heartbeat and only managed a weak smile. “It has been a tough few years, hasn’t it?”

He looked to Keith, whose eyes were wide, fear alive in them. Shiro reached out to him and threaded his fingers with Keith’s, squeezing gently. 

“I can’t promise you something won’t happen again,” Shiro said, low and raw, “just like you can’t promise something won’t happen to you. But – I can’t sit on the sidelines and watch you all put your lives on the line and not be there with you.”

Allura placed her hand over Shiro’s and Keith’s. “Do not do this because we cannot form Voltron without you.”

“I’m not,” Shiro assured, “but even if it was – somethings are bigger than one person.”

“Somehow, you are always that one person,” Lance snorted. 

Shiro wouldn’t fight them on that. “We all have to make sacrifices.”

Keith whispered, gripping Shiro’s hand back. “The universe can’t have you. I won’t let it.”

“Keith…”

“ _We_ won’t let it.” 

A force slammed into Shiro, and he found himself with a lap full of Lance. Allura joined the hug next, followed by Keith, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran. 

“We will save you, Shiro,” Keith whispered against his cheek. “As many times as it takes.”

A moment passed and then another. 

“Back at you,” he promised. And he meant it. 

Lance, Hunk, and Coran openly wept, while Keith nuzzled against Shiro’s neck. 

Pidge rested her head on Shiro’s shoulder, and Allura pressed her cheek against his. 

Allura might have put his essence in a body, but it was this moment when Shiro truly came back to life. 

_The End_


End file.
